Your Mail 11-6-13: Meat argument is illogical ... Good choices in the 5th District

Meat argument illogical

Well, another holiday observance, another Luther Lathley anti-meat missive. I expect we'll soon be treated to an anti-turkey letter the closer we get to Thanksgiving.

I tried to get the logic of his arguments but I got lost in what has to be the longest run-on sentence allowed in Town Talk history. It flip-flopped back and forth more than a beached bass, a delicious thought.

Lathley declares that the "dead-zone" in the Gulf is permanent while not taking the time to note that this area is continuously shrinking and then expanding. He blames its existence on the meat industry while totally ignoring that most recent research shows that a major cause is the runoff from crop lands that washes agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers and herbicides downstream to the Gulf. These are the same lands that produce the crops such as "nutritious corn and soybeans" that he laments are fed to meat-producing animals. He makes no mention of the logic of turning these very same crops into fuel for our automobiles which at the current rate will have a greater effect on food supply than feed grain and fodder.

I suggest that Lathley invest in a one-semester course in agricultural economics so he'd learn that the meat industry doesn't "dictate" market prices. Like any other commodity, prices in the meat industry are dictated by the same market forces that set the price of every other product. It's called supply and demand. It's not some sinister conspiracy.

Lathley concludes by stating that "I am dropping animal products from my menu." This declaration implies that despite all his lecturing and hectoring of the rest of us, he has been including such products in his menu at least up until this latest vegan harangue.

Robert B. Ferguson, Pineville

Good choices in the 5th

Thanks to The Town Talk for providing coverage of the candidates in the race for the 5th Congressional District. The previews for the Oct. 19 primary election certainly helped my friends and I make some decisions about who may be best suited to represent our poor but important district.

With the primary over and the runoff set for Nov. 16, I hope your readers will stay engaged in this race. We have two good candidates: Vance McAllister, a Republican businessman from Monroe; and Neil Riser, the Republican state senator from Columbia.

Both are running good campaigns, and they deserve to hear from us at the polls.

Diane Sulpizio, Natchitoches

Natchitoches

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